Who will think about us: Vasai sex workers

Sex workers get tested for Covid-19 in Vasai on Thursday. Pic/Hanif Patel

We have exhausted almost all our savings. What do we do now? Who will give us ration?" ask sex workers in Vasai, whose livelihood has been snatched by the pandemic-induced curbs.

Several sex workers are seen at Vasai railway station, taxi stand and on the skywalk, looking for customers. Most of them are from West Bengal and Odisha. "The pandemic-induced curbs have left us in the lurch. We have not been able to earn anything," said a 23-year-old woman. A 35-year-old woman from Kolkata said, "My husband married another woman and left me. My two kids are living with my brother.

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I have told them that I work in a shopping mall. I want to send my kids to a good school. Everything was going good but the curbs ruined my dream." Another sex worker from Bhubaneshwar, Odisha said, "Social distancing has snatched our livelihood. The government must think about us too. How will we earn?"

"Several nights, we slept on an empty stomach. We have spent most of our savings," said another woman. Vasai-based NGO Samadhan Foundation has been helping the sex workers with. Its general secretary Fazle Haque Qureshi said, "The sex workers have been hit the hardest during lockdown. So we are giving them dry ration kits."